Loads of bollocks!

Of course all this crap about having hallucinations is not true. At least 12 hours after I took my first pills, I still haven't had any. Heading to bed now, so will find out about the nitemares soon. So far I've only had a small "rush-attack", caused probably by my mind, not the pills.

I have to admit though - I am very happy now. I don't know why, but it's weird to be in such an euphoric mood. A friend of mine described it as "a state you would be in when Polish football team were outplaying and kicking arses of the Brazilians in the World Cup Finals". Hehe, he was bloody right ;-)

The show is about to begin

I am starting my anti-malaria "therapy" in 10 hours. If I go totally nuts, don't blame me, blame the pills. Cross your fingers and pray, if you believe in god, because tomorrow I might not be the same Daga you used to know.

Hehe, of course nothing serious is gonna happen, but people have told me so many scary things about these bloody pills over last few weeks, that I actually am freaking out a bit. We shall see...

Messy update

I know, it's been a while, but life's been hectic recently. Okay, a quick summary:
- I've been working my arse off over last 2 weeks, trying to reach my targets, as I'm leaving for holiday one week before the end of the month
- I was in Poland last week-end and had a jolly good time there. A few pictures below.

Zywiec, one of the best Polish beers. I still prefer English ales, but I'm always up for a glass of moreish Zywiec.

My friend Qn. He is normal on regular basis, just got a bit nervous when I started taking pics of him. I wish I'd taken out my camera a bit earlier, when he took off his shirt!

My friend Anna and her husband Taylor. They were also visiting Poland that weekend, came all the way from Florida. They are the reason for which I was dying on Monday - they managed to convince me to meet just for one beer on Sunday evening and this "one beer" turned into a drinking session till 6am. Looks like we had a lot to catch up with each other ;-) I wouldn't say I was completely sober when I was checking-in at the airport on Monday morning, one hour after we left the bar...

I am also getting ready for my vacation in Asia (yay! one week to go!) and that keeps me busy too. Actually, there is a few funny things about this whole Asia trip. Where to start? Okay, I need a visa to Cambodia and Thailand. It's rather easy, but I need to bring photos of myself, as supposedly there is no place I could take ones at the local airport. I am not quite sure if I believe that, but well, I had to go to the chemists, and blah blah blah. Like I said - nothing really difficult, but...

Then comes malaria. Yep, I've got to take pills, because the risk is reasonably high in Cambodia. And I wouldn't really like to take this risk - malaria is fatal... It took me a while to find out that malaria pills are an OTC medicine here in the UK, so luckily I did not have to go to the GP, queue, wait and ask for prescription. I am glad, as I will need these pills again in August, before my trip to Ghana. Now, here is where it starts getting tricky and "funny". See below:

I've got to take ALL of them!!!

Basically, I must start taking these 1 week before I enter the malarious area, throughout the entire visit and then 4 weeks after I return from the area. So, 2 trips - Cambodia and Ghana equal to 13 weeks on the pills - the entire quarter!!! And if it were only this, I wouldn't be so disturbed. The problem is that very common side-effects include:

- nightmares (!!!)
- diarrhoea
- fits (convulsions!!!)
- hair loss or loss of natural colour of hair (which is usually reversible, thanks god...)
- hallucinations (!!!)

These are not all of them. Other pretty common side-effects are: headache, itching, blood disorders, skin rashes, visual disturbances, damage to the liver (that's fine, my liver is damaged from drinking anyway), mouth ulcers, mood changes, irritation to the lining or movements of the gut (ugh), strange or abnormal thoughts (that's fine too, I've got them anyway, hehe) or depression.

I am not complaining. I am just a bit scared, because my GP and a few other people who actually did take these pills told me that it's very likely I will have nightmares. I just can't imagine 13 weeks with nightmares...

Anyway... I've got a very busy week-end ahead of me, getting things together (Asia), planning and organising some stuff (US visa application, which is another little paperwork nightmare, Ghana visa application etc...), paying my bills, planning my budget for the next couple of months and so on. The list is long and I finally have to take care of all that... So, no wild parties, no drinking (well, some wine maybe), no travelling - just a quiet week-end at home. And I do feel like I need it.

Ar turas go Bhaile Átha Cliath, Éirinn*

I went to green Ireland this weekend. Well, not exactly, as I only visited Dublin, but I saw a bit of green Ireland before we landed. It really is green.

Where do I start? I guess on Friday, although I flew to Dublin on Saturday. Anyway, I met with a friend on Friday and even though I knew I would have to wake up extremely early on Saturday, we obviously got completely sloshed. It was worth going out though, as the night was very warm (around 70F) and Covent Garden was fantastic.

London Eye. Friday evening, around 8pm, on my way to Covent Garden.

Then, on Saturday, after 3 hours of sleep I woke up at 4am. I tried to pack and fight a huge hang-over. The latter didn’t quite work. The reason for such an early wake-up was pretty stupid - the Brits, with all their fantasy, closed 8 tube lines for the week-end and I had to travel around the city, change the lines about 4 times to finally get to Liverpool Street Station from where I could catch a train to Stansted. You can easily imagine how narky I must have felt, riding the tube for 2 hours, so early in the morning and - yes, being completely knackered.

Anyway, I eventually arrived to Dublin and was welcomed by typical Irish spring weather. In other words - rain and about 50F. It’s really hard to describe the joy that hit me. Hung-over, cold, soon to be soaking wet - what else could I ask for? I found out very soon. See, I think that Dublin is utterly screwed up in terms of getting around. Or the map they gave me at the airport was. I got completely lost and was wandering in the rain for about 1 hour looking for my hotel, then, when I left the hotel to see some tourist attractions, I got lost again. And again. And again. I managed to do a bit of sight-seeing, though. Actually, I saw quite a lot. See below:

Flowers.

St. Patrick's Cathedral. Jonathan Swift, who wrote Gulliver's Travels was a dean of St. Patrick's a few hundred years ago.

Guinness Storehouse. The worst, most boring and most over-rated place in Dublin. If you ever visit Dublin, you should never go there. They only positive thing is a free pint of Guinness at the end of the "tour".

The Old Jameson Distillery. Now, that was really cool. Not only can you learn about the difference between Irish Whiskey, Scotch and Bourbon, but they also give you a complimentary glass of tasty Jameson after the tour.

The Old Jameson Distillery.

Dublin "skyline" from the Chimney Tower.

Kilmainham Gaol. Not exactly the nicest place to be, if you're a prisoner, however people were committing crimes during the Great Famine to get in here, in hope for regular meals.

Grafton Street, one of the busiest streets in Dublin.

And yet another street in Dublin.

This is pretty much it, when it comes to sight-seeing. Frankly, Dublin doesn’t have much to offer in this area. When it comes to drinking venues though, it’s just the opposite. I met with a few friends (old / new friends from Poland) and we went out on the piss. Jolly good times, I shall only say…

I am thinking about going to Ireland again sometime, but this time I will probably focus on the rest of the country, which supposedly is really beautiful.

Oh, and a little places-trivia at the very end of this somehow too long post: where was this picture taken? Warsaw, San Francisco, London, or maybe somewhere else? A pint of delicious London Pride for anyone, who gets it right. The only catch is that you’ll have to come to London to redeem your prize!

Where is it?

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*A trip to Dublin, Ireland. In Irish, of course ;-)

Global warming?

Current conditions in London. Pretty nice, eh? Should I also say, that it's been actually warmer in London than in San Diego, California over last couples of days? This particular aspect of global warming does not bother me at all.

Source: www.weather.co.uk

¿Qué tal?

¡Hola! Me llamo Dagmara. Tengo venticinco años. Soy de Polonia y vivo en Londres. Hablo inglés, alemán, polaco y un poquito español. Trabajo en empresa americana. Me siento bien!

That's pretty much all I can say after 2 classes. Not bad and I also know números and días de la semana (days of the week) as well as a few other expressions (like "Queria una cerveza, por favor"). Muy bien!